1. Landing in Auckland

New Zealand: Paco's last destination.

Paco has just arrived in Auckland, the capital city of this country. After visiting the city he has planned to travel south to reach Rotorua. He has doubts about how to travel. At first he thought of travelling it by bus and save some money but a boy in the street has given him a brochure about rentingcampers so he is considering hiring one to move around the island and living in it for a few days.

Imagen en Wikipedia de Taifarious 1

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Listening activity

Click on the photo below and listen to the conversation between two people talking about what to visit in New Zealand. After that, do the multiple choice listening and comprehension exercise that is on the right and check your answers.

Imagen en Wikimedia Commons de Phillip Capper

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If you click on the tab below you will see the tapescript.

Retroalimentación

Todd: So, Monica, you are from New Zealand.

Monica: Yes, that's right.

Todd: So, for people going to New Zealand, what would you recommend? What are three or four places that you must see in New Zealand?

Monica: Oh, OK, three or four places you must see. Well, it depends what you're looking for really. I think a lot of people that come to New Zealand enjoy an outdoor lifestyle, so there's lots of outdoor activities and places you can go to to enjoy in New Zealand. Personally, I find the South Island of New Zealand very scenic in comparison to the North Island, so for me, a must-do is the West Coast of the South Island. It's very pretty.

Todd: The West Coast.

Monica: Yeah. In particular, there's two glaciers. Franz Joseph and Fox Glaciers, which are very stunning to look at, and you can either have a look at them by foot, or you can pay for a helicopter ride that takes you up and shows you an ariel view of them.

Todd: Now, do people ever walk across the glaciers?

Monica: There are guides that can walk you across. Yeah, I haven't done it personally, but it is possible.

Todd: So what else would you recommend for New Zealand? What other places should people see?

Monica: I think if you want to see ... let me think ... rural New Zealand. It's quite a nice idea to drive the length of the country and then you can see the interesting farming that is taking place, in particular in the South Island. The lower part of the South Island, and a lot of the North Island as well. There's a lot of sheep in New Zealand and there's a lot of cattle as well, so I think it's interesting to go for a drive to see that firsthand.

Todd: So, you just start up in Auckland in the north and drive all the way down south?

Monica: Yeah, well, there's many ways you can do it, but I recommend one way of doing it is too arrive in Auckland and to have an experience of a big city, well a big city for New Zealand, and then drive down the center of the North Island and maybe have a farming experience somewhere. There's a lot of farm stay opportunities available for tourists who come to New Zealand, so depending on how you do it. You might want to stay two or three days with a family and experience a farming lifestyle. So that's, yeah, one thing I'd recommend. And another is to maybe go to a city like Rotorua which is really in the center of the North Island, and experience Maori culture. There's a Maori village there near the Whakarewarewa forest which hosts a lot of tourists, and you get to experience Maori waiata which is Maori songs and you get to see the hot springs in New Zealand and thermal mud pools, so, yeah, Rotorua is a nice city to go and visit, and then work your way down to the capital of New Zealand which is Wellington, and I think if you want to experience the cafe lifestyle of New Zealand that's a good place to go.

Solved exercise

Listen and then read the previous dialogue again.

An idiom is "a group of words whose meaning cannot be predicted from the meanings of the constituent words, as for example: (It was raining) cats and dogs" (Wordreference Dictionary). There are two idioms in it:

'Work your way down' and 'a must do'.

Try to guess their real meaning and do not forget to practise their pronunciation clicking on them in the listening activity itself.

Curiosity

Did you know that there are fourteen national parks in New Zealand and that The National Parks Act 1980 provides for the establishment of national parks or reserves in areas where the scenery is of such distinctive quality, or the natural features or ecological systems so important scientifically that their preservation is in the national interest. Click on the photo below to see a list of them and to make a virtual journey to them.

Imagen en Wikipedia de James Shook

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